Joy Doumis and Jeremy Hammond ready apples for pressing into cider in their Brooklyn backyard. Inset: Doumis and Hammond call the fruits of their labor Proper Cider.Christian Johnston

On a recent chilly Friday morning in the quiet neighborhood of South Park Slope, Jeremy Hammond, 36, and his girlfriend, Joy Doumis, 35, are outside in their backyard surrounded by bins of fresh apples they picked upstate, a modified 20-ton shop press, and a golden-yellow funnel-shaped grinder.

Doumis crouches over bins of apples floating in soapy water as she cleans any grime off, while Hammond dumps a crate of freshly washed fruit into the grinder, which pulverizes 50 pounds of apples per minute and turns them into mush.

The couple, who both work in TV production, are making hard cider — which has an alcohol content ranging from 5 percent to 10 percent.

It was America’s most popular alcoholic beverage before the Prohibition era and is the fastest growing drink in the liquor industry since 2009.

Now, it’s the focus of New York City 2014 Cider Week, running at bars, restaurants and liquor shops around town through Nov. 2. But if you’re thinking of the cloying brew repopularized in the mid-’90s by mass brands like Woodchuck, you’d be wrong.

“We don’t like sugary sweet stuff,” says Hammond. “People would say, ‘I don’t like all the sugar in cider.’ I’d ask, ‘Have you ever tried proper cider?’ We get rid of all the sugar. The yeast eats it all.”

Hammond, a wine lover who worked in French vineyards during his 20s, made his first batch of cider in 2004, in the couple’s 225-square-foot former apartment in Park Slope.

“It’s hard to get grapes, but New York has a lot of apples,” he says. “We’re taking a winemaker’s approach, with the terroir and the unique flavorings.”

Joy Doumis (left) starts the home cider-making process with a wash. Then, partner Jeremy Hammond presses the apples (right) in a $200 shop press he reconfigured, and measures alcohol content with a hydrometer.Christian Johnston

Despite their passion and precision, and their “Proper Cider” name, the couple are only hobbyists.

“I think of it a lot as being in a band with my girlfriend,” says Hammond, who, according to New York state law, is allowed to produce 100 gallons per year as a homebrewer over the age of 21.

“If we dump 100 gallons, we can still pay our mortgage,” he says referring to the possibility of making a bad batch. “That’s the difference between commerce and craft.”

Apple season began in August and goes through November, but according to Hammond, “We’ll keep going until we run out of space.”

Apples were a passion for another Brooklyn couple, too. “It was my fault, I don’t like beer,” says British expat Alexandria Fisk, 34.

So her husband, Jahil Maplestone, 36, an avid home-brewer, decided to give hard cider a try, and luckily, she liked it.

He also regularly entered competitions on the beer-making circuit, so he submitted his new concoction in a cider competition — and won. The comment card from the judge came back with a note that simply said, “You should sell this.”

“We started thinking about it,” says Maplestone, a freelance film and TV video editor originally from Melbourne, Australia.

Jahil Maplestone and Alexandria Fisk have just opened their own cider business, headquartered in Maspeth, Queens.Christian Johnston

Last year, after Gov. Cuomo signed a bill making licenses available to cideries that exclusively use NY crops, the couple applied and are opening one of eight new cideries in the state.

Fisk, who spent 10 years working for an investment bank and is now a manager at a software firm, came up with a business plan while Maplestone set up NYC’s first cidery, Descendant Cider Co., just a few miles from their home in Cobble Hill.

The production facility, a 600-square-foot room with a wall of windows on one side, is tucked inside an industrial building in Maspeth, Queens. Their neighbors include vintage motorcycle shops, artists and craftsmen. “It’s like tinkerers and makers,” says Fisk.

I think of it a lot as being in a band with my girlfriend.

- Jeremy Hammond, on making hard cider at home with his partner.

Upon entering the space, you’re immediately hit with an oddly pleasant, yet sulfuric, smell of fermenting apple juice and the distinct sound of bubbling. Clear tubes run from portals on white plastic fermentation tanks to buckets filled with water, where the carbon dioxide is released.

Maplestone, who learned the trade from a cider-making course in Washington state and a lot of independent research, rolls out a bilevel cart loaded up with various bottles of chemicals and some lab glassware to measure things like sugar and acidity. Their current batches take anywhere from three months to a year to produce.

“We source from different apples throughout the Hudson Valley,” says Maplestone. New York is the second-largest apple-growing state, behind Washington. “It’s random — with cider, you want a blend of apples for complexity. If you use all Granny Smiths, you’ll get a lot of acid. Golden Delicious are good for aroma. McIntosh gives tartness and acidity.”

Descendant Cider debuted at the Queens Kickshaw in Astoria Friday night as part of Cider Week, but, says Maplestone: “We’re not in a huge rush to blanket the city. If everything goes well, our aspiration is to open a cider bar to celebrate cider,” adds Fisk.

Celebrate apple cider week

A variety of ciders will be available during tastings all over town.

Cider Week runs through Nov. 2 in various locations around the city.

Festivities include various tastings and talks, as well as cider-pairing dinners, including the Queens Kickshaw (where you can try two Descendant Cider Co. brews), Northern Spy Food Co., DBGB and many more restaurants.

Doumis and Hammond will also hold a cider-making demo at Bitter & Esters in Prospect Heights on Sunday. Details at ciderweeknyc.com.

Hit the road, Mac: A new apple’s in town

New York Apple GrowersApple lovers: Your favorite snack is getting an upgrade.

The SnapDragon (above), introduced to the public earlier this fall, is a Honeycrisp-cross known for its exceptional crunch.

“It’s an extra-special eating experience,” boasts Jeff Crist, an exec with the New York Apple Growers, who helped develop the apple. “Once you eat one, you’re going to want to eat more.”

Here are some fun facts:

HISTORY: Cornell University started development of the SnapDragon more than 10 years ago.